


In honour clear

by Hypatia_66



Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: section7mfu, Episode Related, Gen, Honor, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 02:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17336684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: LJ Short Affair challenge. Prompts: promise, goldIllya feels challengedReference to the Fiddlesticks Affair





	In honour clear

“No man calls upon his honour so much as he who lacks it.”

Illya had made this remark to Marcel Rudolph more than a little sarcastically: the con-man had no intention of fulfilling any honourable obligations. But by simply saying it, the phrase continued to reverberate in Illya’s head and challenge him. Who or what had even given him a sense of honour? Had he really been a true gentleman, whatever that was? Had he lost his own honour? What was honour, anyway?

<><> 

“Would you say you were an honourable man, Napoleon?”

Napoleon raised his eyes from the file he was reading and saw that his partner’s question was meant seriously. “I hope so,” he said.

“Why?” said Illya, simply.

Napoleon’s eyebrows rose. It was a bit early in the morning for deep philosophical discussion… “What’s brought this on?” he enquired.

“Would you say, _I_ was honourable?”

Napoleon frowned. “Illya, what’s the matter with you today? Of course I think you’re honourable. I couldn’t work with you if you weren’t.”

The tense expression on his partner’s face lightened a little. “But why? What does it mean?”

“Honourable? It means being true to your beliefs …”

“Thrush people are true to their beliefs. It doesn’t make them honourable.”

“True to a high standard of morality, then.”

“You mean the Ten Commandments kind of morality? That’s the gold standard, isn’t it? If so, we break several of those on a regular basis.”

“You define it then.”

“I’ve been trying to. The dictionaries say it’s a quality that combines respect, honesty and pride; knowing and doing what you believe to be right. But a psychopathic member of Thrush could say he had all those things _and_ believed them and it wouldn’t make him honourable.”

“True. So, what conclusion have you come to?”

“Only that it has different meanings. It is the attribute of someone who always behaves nobly, who is magnanimous, who despises vicious, self-regarding meanness. It is also merely a function of power – no more, no less. So, it’s the honourable gentleman, the honourable so-and-so, his honour the judge, that sort of thing.”

“And what’s your problem?”

“I’m none of those things.”

Napoleon sighed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Illya. You at least aim to do the right thing… Your behaviour around others might not bring you universal popularity, but you’re not a psychopath; you don’t revel in the so-called honour that power or viciousness bring.”

“Maybe not,” said Illya, but Napoleon hadn’t finished.

“Of course, you’re not a gentleman either. What _is_ a gentleman, anyway?”

Illya gave him an unreadable look.

“And thank whoever it is you do thank, that you’re not a woman,” Napoleon continued. “A woman’s honour is something else again.”

“A social construct by a patriarchal society,” Illya retorted. “As I’m sure you are aware.”

“Have you taken to reading sociology textbooks, now?”

Napoleon grinned at Illya’s expression. “Thankfully, most of the women here don’t define themselves by so outmoded a construct.”

“You’re so persuasive, is what you mean.”

“I promise you, my motives and actions are entirely honourable.”

Illya cast up his eyes.

“Are you satisfied now? Because we’re late and Mr Waverly doesn’t like unpunctuality.”

Illya rose hurriedly and as they marched out into the corridor, said, “Punctuality is the courtesy of kings – and honourable as we might be, we aren’t kings.”

“We’d better not keep the king waiting, though.”

“Perhaps we ought to run.”

“No, I think a purposeful walk – at speed – suits honourable Section Two agents.”

<><><><> 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Alexander Pope's Moral Essays: "Statesman yet friend to truth! of soul sincere / In action faithful, and in honour clear, / Who gained no title, and who lost no friend."


End file.
